Package targets Hawai'i keiki

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Spending $12 million to provide more activities and programs for students is among the package of proposals endorsed by the Keiki Caucus yesterday.

Caucus co-leader Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, D-13th (Kalihi, Nu'uanu), said keeping children and youth busy with healthy non-school hour activities will help students find their talents and reduce teenage pregnancy and drug use.

The caucus, made up of 28 Democratic and Republican lawmakers, is also endorsing measures to tackle childhood obesity. They include bills that would establish nutrition standards for food and drinks sold to students in public and private elementary and intermediate schools, and spending $11 million over five years for full-time physical-education positions at school complexes with high levels of obesity.

Other legislation in the Keiki Caucus package would:

• Require moped riders and bicyclists under 18 years old to wear helmets.

• Expand substance-abuse treatment in schools.

• Appropriate $1.8 million to the state Department of Education for new textbooks.

• Make leaving a child unsupervised in a motor vehicle a petty misdemeanor.

• Require members of the clergy to report child abuse to the police or state Department of Human Services.

• Increase eligibility for the state Children's Health Insurance Program to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.